The discombobulating spectacle of Chinese largesse

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Two stories at The Australian capture it. First the suing of John Garnaut:

A Fairfax Media journalist and former adviser to Malcolm Turnbull had a “puerile attitude of resentment and gloating” when he wrote an article linking Chinese real estate billionaire Chau Chak Wing to allegations of bribery, a court has heard.

John Garnaut and Fairfax Media are facing legal action launched by Mr Chau alleging he was defamed in a report published in late 2015 that suggested he had bribed a UN official and had built his business empire in Australia on “hot air” and bribes to officials.

Bruce McClintock SC, opening his case for Mr Chau, said the October 16 article on The Sydney Morning Herald’s website referenced his client’s “imperial palace” in China and that he may prefer to “bunker down” amid the UN bribery scandal allegations.

Meanwhile in the testicular-free zone of Sydney University we get the following, also from The Australian:

The University of Sydney’s plan to destroy a large group of trees near its front gates to make way for a $15 million museum and study centre funded by controversial China-based businessman Chau Chak Wing has sparked new protests across the campus.

An approved landscape plan for the building, to be named after Mr Chau, prescribes chopping down up to 18 native and other trees that have been a prominent feature of the campus main ­entrance off Parramatta Road for decades. Trees listed for removal include a scribbly gum, kanooka water gum, Queensland brush box, African olive, Aleppo pine and weeping bottle brush.

…Greens on Campus spokesman Laurence Chappell told The Australian that management seemed to have ignored complaints that significant trees would be ­destroyed.

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In summary:

  • Domainfax sued into silence…
  • as ‘bastion of truth’ Sydney University builds with the money…
  • while the Greens worry about the trees.

That is so %$^*#! up that I do not know where to start.

About the author
David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.